Gun Buy Back Scheme - The Australian National Audit Office

AFP comment
3 95 Under the Complaints (Australian Federal Police) Act 1981 there is
a specific requirement to clear the matter leading to the audit with
the Commonwealth Ombudsman before notifying any
recommendation or perceived action to the parties who are the
subject of that action. In this case the Ombudsman determined the
matter on 25 March 1997 and the Internal Audit draft report was
issued on 8 May 1997. The recommendations of the internal audit
have either been completed or are nearing completion. While
some computer modifications have been made, further
enhancements now also form part of a wider AFP computer
development program.
ANAO sample testing of transactions
3 96 As with the AFP internal audit work, the ANAO’s testing of a
sample of firearms surrender transactions identified some
procedural inaccuracies. The ANAO reviewed all records of
transfer of firearms for disposal which existed at the time of audit.
These amounted to about 3350 surrendered weapons. About 2
per cent of these (76 records) did not show clear evidence of the
transfer to Firearms and Ballistics Branch (F and B Branch) for
disposal.
3 97 Some entries on destruction schedules were annotated by
F and B Branch as ‘not received’, while others were simply crossed
out without explanatory annotation. Reference to the relevant
computer record did not provide information as to its location.
3 98 In all cases the ANAO subsequently found adequate evidence of
despatch for destruction on other destruction schedules or of
retention in the F&B ballistic library, or physically located the
weapon where it had been retained within the Weapons Registry.
3 99 Retention had been justified either:
• pending valuation or dispute of valuation; or
• for AFP training or display purposes.
3 100 The ANAO found that some weapons had been deleted from
destruction schedules because the relevant weapon was not
physically present in a batch of weapons. This had occurred
because:
64 The Gun Buy-Back Scheme